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Southwestern Pennsylvania is where I was born, raised, and lived until recently. I plan on returning one day. There are aspects of living there that cannot be duplicated anywhere else. Having said that....

What's been happening to the culture there over the past ten years? The city used to seem safe to me. Now the media has it painted as a shooting gallery. The craziness that I hear about in the news back there is unbelievable. So many people doing so many absolutely loony things. Before I moved, I noticed a large uptick in the aggressiveness of the general public in and around the Pittsburgh area that felt really out of place and foreign to me.

Another thing that really stood out to me was my last trip to Kennywood. I was shocked at the amount of profanity I heard from both adults and children, as well as the abysmal way in which people were dressed. It reminded me of that movie Idocracy. Thoughts?

I've lived here for the past three years and Pittsburgh is a very safe city. I haven't noticed any aggressiveness among the people I encounter. In fact, it seems like everyone gets along with everyone, or makes an effort to do so. I live in a sketchy neighborhood and work in one of the most crime-ridden areas of the city, but even so I still feel very safe. The crime rates have not increased over the years, so in general nothing has changed to make Pittsburgh a more violent place than it ever has been.

Uh the city is still safe. There are problems area but usually they are in specific areas that you most likely wouldn't be in. I would also still say that our "bad" areas are nothing compared to a lot of other cities. Some local news stations here really do report on some dumb stuff. Like the Light Up Night thread for example. Thousands and thousands of people downtown for Light Up Night yet they report on a fist fight between a group of idiots. They really do the city a disservice when they make something dumb like that look like some huge violent happening---totally not the case. We must also remember how much access we have to information now than even 20 years ago. We hear about almost everything it seems.

I've lived here for the past three years and Pittsburgh is a very safe city. I haven't noticed any aggressiveness among the people I encounter. In fact, it seems like everyone gets along with everyone, or makes an effort to do so. I live in a sketchy neighborhood and work in one of the most crime-ridden areas of the city, but even so I still feel very safe. The crime rates have not increased over the years, so in general nothing has changed to make Pittsburgh a more violent place than it ever has been.

Sealite, I just moved back to Pgh after being gone for 15 years - five in Raleigh, NC, and 10 in Philly. I really love Philly, but got tired of the incivility and constant rush. Now that I'm back home....I can feel myself breathing easier. Despite living in a neighborhood with a bad reputation and some actual fairly serious crime, I feel pretty safe as long as I act sensibly. And when I go out in public, I can be nice and smile, something that I learned not to do so much in Phl. As others have said, most of the crime is drug related; if you run with the dogs and you'll catch some fleas, as one of my favorite patients says.

Oftentimes I hear people make statements on how the US is become a dangerous place (neighbors won't let their kids walk to the school bus stop for fear of the white van man coming to steal them away).

The reality is crime rates have dropped considerably in this nation since 1990 (refer to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports).

The fact that we are pummeled with constant news about something bad happening somewhere, we tend to think the US (or Pittsburgh) is becoming more dangerous. I also believe people are generally bad at perceiving risk versus threat. Here is a good post on this: Schneier on Security: Perceived Risk vs. Actual Risk

"Shooting Gallery?" Where are you getting this stuff? There's a little bit of crime, of course, but it's not like I have to dodge bullets when I'm walking around the Northside. You're in more danger driving on the parkway (see the traffic fatality thread) than you are living in the city.

Now the media has it painted as a shooting gallery. The craziness that I hear about in the news back there is unbelievable. So many people doing so many absolutely loony things.

Partially due to what the Pittsburgh newspapers choose to cover.

I can't imagine Pittsburgh being worse than Las Vegas. But when you read the Vegas newspapers online, they're heavily covering poker news, mixed-martial artists news, large events coming to Vegas, tourism, some celebrity stuff, and a million other things. The murders that happen everywhere in Vegas, are buried deep in the double-digit pages.

Whenever I view the online Pittsburgh newspapers, they ONLY seem to talk about people getting shot, people getting stabbed, on and on. They spend most of their time covering the worst of humanity.

In short, if local journalist and editors in Pittsburgh could find something more interesting to write about, yinz all wouldn't have to read about stabbings, shootings, and gun violence all the time.

WPXI, KDKA, WTAE, KDKA radio, PCNC. While they hype the living hell out of the underbelly of Pittsburgh society, anyone who doesn't think that many Pittsburgh area suburbs have really gone downhill in the past ten years is kidding themselves. On the bright side however, more parts of the area have undergone some major improvements in the same amount of time.

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